Network management systems (NMS) facilitate the exchange of management information between Network Elements (NEs) and network administrators' Operations Support Systems (OSS). Network administrators can use an NMS to install and configure NEs, provision services, manage network performance, find and solve network problems, and plan for network growth. Network management systems today face many challenges as networks grow in size. Network management systems need to be scalable. For example, thousands of events can be generated when a fault is discovered at a network element. In a large network, a network management system can easily be overwhelmed. It would be desirable to develop a network management system that is robust, scalable, and capable of efficiently handling a growing network.